Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Northerner, a New Englander; a Union soldier.

1778		Conquerors 14: Give me five hundred brave and chosen men, I’ll drive the Yanks from north to south again [DA].
1851		C.L. Canfield Diary of a Forty-Niner (1906) 95: The town turned out to see the fun and I could hear them yell: ‘Go it, Yank.’.
1864		T.F. Upson diary 27 July in Winther With Sherman to the Sea (1958) 62: The Johnnys would say, ‘Come to my house Yank when the war is over and I will give you a good square meal.’ [Ibid.] 27 Dec. 88: The Jo(h)nnys yelled ‘Go it Yanks’ and fired but few shots.
1872		(con. US Civil War) Schele De Vere Americanisms 23: During the war the Yanks became the universal designation of Federal soldiers in the Confederacy.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 475: Give me two thousand dollars, Morris! This here Yank’s chawin’ me up.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 289: Asked me where I was from. I answered, New England. ‘Oh, a Yank.’.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 141: We none of us cared much for the Johnny Rebs, and still less for the Yanks.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 390: Yank, n. [...] The term is applied to any one who lives above the Mason and Dixon line. ‘He’s a Yank from Chicago.’.
1922		‘Year Of Jubilee’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 58: Yanks locked him in de smokehouse cellar, / De key’s throwed in de well: / It sho’ mus’ be de Kindgdom Come. / Go ring dat nigger field-bell!

2. a usu. derog. term for an American.

1851		L. Clappe in Shirley Letters (1949) 79: The man who keeps the store [...] goes by the sobriquet of ‘Yank,’ and is quite a character. He used to be a peddlar in the States, and is remarkable for an intense ambition to be thought what Yankees call ‘cute and smart.’.
1864		‘Ned Buntline’ Life in the Saddle 7: Just wait till England and France [...] put in an armed interference, and the poor Yanks will be nowhere!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 22/4: Had he written three figures, he would have been taken for a ‘mere colonial money-bags,’ who gave to the titled delegates of fashionable pauperism in the same ostentatious way as the old-fashioned Yank used to throw his dollars at the Langham hotel waiter.
1890		‘F. Anstey’ Voces Populi 7: ‘Excuse me,’ I sez, like that, ‘but are you an American or a German?’ [...] And he sez, ‘No, I’m a Yank.’.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 6 July 626: Cute fellows, the Yanks.
1910		Marvel 5 Feb. 17: I tink all Yanks are mad.
1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Dec. 2s/4: I teach all the slang, sir-r, and Bow’ry harangue, sir-r, I brought from the land of the Yank.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 185: He would come into the jail corridor roaring drunk at night, rout out the two ‘breeds,’ and have them unlock my cell and search ‘the damned yank.’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 180: The Yanks were there rum-tum-tumming up everything.
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 177: I judge him to be a Yank.
1945		Look (ad for Borden’s Hemo vitamins) 18 Sept. 18: I’m convinced the Yanks are better looking, handsomer than our boys.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 110: His girl started going with a Yank.
1958		Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 265: He is wot we vulgar boys hem-hem call a YANK.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 22: They actually survive, down to the Yanks [...] being such pushovers.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 181: Hey, Yank! Why don’t you join in the bloody war then?
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 65: It looked like the lounge in the English hotel for the Yanks where they serve tea.
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 71: ‘Yanks’ Manda whispered.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 120: The Yanks don’t get my sense of humour.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] Too busy talking to the Yank.

3. a US ship.

1883

J. Keane On Blue Water 206: I’ve been in a few regular scorching hot packets, both Yanks and blue-nosers, but this puts the capper on the lot.